Carried in by the Gentle Wind

CHAPTER 8

     Ugh. If it weren't for Venti, there was definitely no way you would be up this early on a Saturday morning. He called you quite early, to tell you that he absolutely had to meet you in person that day. Any other day, and you would have complained, but when you heard his strained voice, you complied without a word. Unfortunately, despite your efforts, once he called you, you were up and you were up for good. Groaning, you slipped under the covers, your futile attempts for mindless bliss doing nothing more than keeping you awake. Once your eyes fluttered open after your fifth attempt, you gave up, deciding instead to maybe scroll through your phone.

     Hm... You rapidly scrolled through a few news articles and blurbs, all talking about one thing, or rather, one person. Xiao.. Why is this guy all over the news again? I was pretty sure he was on break ever since he released his last album... Your eyes widened. Stopping your scrolling, your thumb hovered momentarily over one rather straightforward headline. Barbatos Entertainment x Morax Music: Stellis & Xiao Collaboration Confirmed for this Winter... Huh? .....WUT.

     "Ven..??" You muttered to yourself, bewildered. Ughhhhh..

     You tossed your phone onto a corner of your bed, groaning as you let yourself fall face first on your pillow. Why on Teyvat was this man making you work with so many strangers the first few days of coming back..? Why was he making you socialize...??? With your greatest competitor on the market, no le- Wait. Crap that makes sense profit-wise. Whyyyyyyyy-

     After a moment of silence, you lifted your stoic face off the pillow, and got out of bed. You really couldn't sleep anymore, and you had to start getting ready to leave anyways. Venti was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

***

     Your expression still unmoving, you gave a solid knock on the door, before entering Venti's office.

     "Good morning!" Venti was standing as he tightly grasped the edge of his desk when he greeted you, his mouth a thin line.

     You stopped short. You were definitely going to start pelting complaints towards him when you saw him, but his forced smile, his foreboding atmosphere... today was totally not the day to be messing with him.

     You returned Venti's smile rather nervously. He didn't send you this smile often, but when he did, it was never pretty.

     "Uh, hi...?"

    You stole a quick glance at the person beside you, who gave you a small awkward smile, a slight tilt of his head as greeting. He had his pale, slender fingers entwined with each other tightly in front of him, and he stood upright, as if he were being punished before you arrived. Briefly searching his scarlet eyes in an attempt to figure out the situation, you hastily snapped back to face front when Venti's abnormally displeased voice reached your ears.

     "Heh....."

     "... ?"

     "Guess whose face almost ended up plastered on media platforms all over the world!"

     Your brain stopped functioning as you blinked blankly. ".... No way. You're kidding."

     "I'm dead serious."

     "I-... When?"

     "When what?"

     "I- uhhh, okay, first why?"

     "Y/n, those aren't specific enough questions."

     "...."

      You sighed and took in a breath to prevent further spluttering. "Alright, one. What for? As in, why was I about to be on the front cover? Did... someone.. manage to figure out my identity? .... Uh, did they manage to get a picture?"